On December 14, Dale Birkenholz, Les Allen, Lenore Sobota, and I covered the area around Lake Bloomington for the Christmas Bird Count in McLean County. Lenore did not join us until after lunch because she was in a race at Evergreen Lake despite the seven inches of snow we had the night before. It was a beautiful day to be out. The sky was overcast, and the ground was covered with snow, but it was not unbearably cold or windy. Our best birding was on Lake Bloomington. We were watching a large group of Canada Geese and Mallards with a few Cackling Geese, a juvenile Trumpeter Swan, a female Common Merganser, a Greater White-fronted Goose, and an American Black Duck or two mixed in when more geese flew in. The calls were high pitched, and we could see a few white geese in the mix. We thought they were mostly Canada Geese with a few Snow Geese mixed in. However, when they landed, we discovered the flock was actually made up of about 60 Cackling Geese and four Ross's Geese. It was nice to see these two species side by side. They were both pretty much the same size and shared similar bill structure. We stopped at the same place a couple of times later that day and found a pair of American Wigeons, a pair of Northern Pintails, five more American Black Ducks, and four Trumpeter Swans--three adults and a what appeared to be a different juvenile. Here are three of the Trumpeters.
We also ran into a couple of domestic friends that day, while driving around. Too bad we could not count either of these guys. They were starting to move toward Dale's vehicle just before we drove away. I think we could have collected them if we had wanted to.
Given Harper had found a Peregrine Falcon at ISU a couple of days before the count, but I was counting in the wrong area to go looking for it on the count day. Given had seen it on Watterson Towers, and Wes Kolb saw it on count day a couple of blocks North on top of Hewitt. There were a couple of other birds seen by others on count day that I still needed for the year in the county--Snow Bunting and Short-eared Owl. Also, Matthew Winks had seen a Northern Shrike a few days prior to the count, and I still needed this bird for the county period!
Before church the next morning, I drove to Watterson Towers and Hewitt, but did not see the Peregrine on either building. But alas, I saw it on Manchester, a smaller dorm adjacent to Hewitt. It seemed to be roosting to stay warm. I nearly got frostbite trying to take pictures of it and had to soak my fingers in lukewarm water when I returned home; however, it was such a beautiful bird!
Later in the day, Wes Kolb and I went to look for the shrike, Snow Bunting, and Short-eared Owl. We could not find the shrike, nor any owls, but we did relocate the Snow Bunting he had seen the previous day during the count. It was on a small grain bin near the corner of Ropp Rd. and Raab Rd.
We also had a Common Grackle (late) at Evergreen Lake, two Fox Sparrows near Lexington, and a Rough-legged Hawk North of Lexington. Evergreen Lake held at least 12 Common Goldeneyes, and there were 11 Common Mergansers at Lake Bloomington.
Our best find of the day; however, was this Bald Eagle eating a Canada Goose at Evergreen Lake near the West boat launch.
Good birding!
This post was written and published on December 21, 2013. It was originally published as part of the post "Winter Raptors, Songbirds, and Waterfowl." Then it was separated from that post and republished on February 1, 2015
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